


Know 'Em Like Your Own Mind

by letsgostealafandom



Category: Leverage
Genre: Fluff, Multi, Schmoop, also that feeling you feel when that is bullshit, than they could ever love you, that feeling you feel, that two people are gonna love each other more, when you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-09 21:04:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5555303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsgostealafandom/pseuds/letsgostealafandom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec's just worried, okay. Parker and Eliot don't seem to need him around anymore (at all?) and that can't mean good things for their relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Know 'Em Like Your Own Mind

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for [awkwardlysexytho](http://awkwardlysexytho.tumblr.com) on tumblr, based on their prompt. Also it is unbeta'd because I implied I'd post these gift fics on Christmas Day and then I didn't. Sooooooo yeah.

"But Nana, you've never seen them together." Alec clutched his cell harder as Parker started laughing at something out in the living room.

"And whose fault is that, Alec Hardison?" Nana asked, her voice sharp over the sound of screeching kids in the background.

"Next year, I promise," he said, resisting the urge to peer around the bedroom doorway from where he was hid- having a private phone call that was absolutely nothing like hiding at all. Of course, that was assuming there would _be_ a next year, and-

"Don't you go thinking I'm too old to whup your butts," Nana hollered at the kids, right in Alec's ear. For a second, the memory of being back home with her yelling that out into the backyard when him and the other foster kids were being too wild was enough to make him forget that his girlfriend and his boyfriend didn't actually seem to care if he was around most the time. Well, half the time. Often enough that he was-

"I'm just worried," he said quietly. Sometimes it felt like he loved them with everything he had, with every possible piece of himself, but it still wasn't enough compared to the way the two of them slotted together like two puzzle pieces.

"If they didn't want you there, you wouldn't be there," Nana said, calm and certain in all the ways Alec couldn't be. "You tell me they're smart people, so trust them to know they got a good thing going with you."

He pressed his lips together and didn't argue that his entire point was that maybe they had a better thing going with just them and he should somehow make it easier for them to tell him that. Or maybe just give them more space to be together without him around.

"Now, I need to get going, it's time to put these hellions to bed. I love you, Alec."

"Love you, too, Nana," he managed to get in before she hung up, the sudden silence on the other end of the line making his ear ring a little.

"Hardison!" Eliot called from the living room. "You coming, or what?"

"Yeah," he said, and tried not to feel anything when he flopped down in the middle of the couch and Eliot stayed in his chair and Parker stayed perched on the arm of his chair. "Sorry."

###

Alec told himself that it was for the best when he started spending more time gaming and less time just hanging out with Parker and Eliot, and they didn't say anything.

He told himself it was for the best when he started staying on the computer longer, waiting to slip into bed until they were already asleep, and they didn't seem to notice.

The thing was, he knew that everybody needed to be loved differently, that the things that made one person feel like they were loved were different from what made another person feel like they were loved. Parker and Eliot seemed to just _get_ how to love each other, while he worked at learning how to love them right. He thought they were all doing that.

It hadn't occurred to him until recently that maybe they'd never be able to make him feel loved back.

###

Alec was in the middle of a raid when Parker dropped down next to him and said, "We need to talk," with a little frown on her face.

"Sorry guys, gotta go," he said and shut down the game, not caring how many people he was pissing off, because it felt like his heart had jumped up to his throat. He had been giving them more space lately, but it clearly wasn't enough because this was going to be it. This was going to be The Conversation.

"What's up?" he asked, leaning against the doorframe and trying to be as nonchalant as possible, which was not very. Eliot was sitting on the couch, looking grouchy, and Parker sat down next to him, not touching but close enough that Eliot wouldn't have to reach for for her.

God, he was glad that at least they had each other, that at least they weren't going to be alone after this conversation was over.

Parker shared a look with Eliot, one that Alec couldn't read, and then asked, "Are you trying to break up with us?"

That- was not exactly what he was doing. He was trying to make it easier for _them_ to break up with _him_. Which was kind of the same, he guessed, but-

Parker had grabbed Eliot's hand as his silence drew out and suddenly, all Alec could focus on was that both their knuckles were white with how hard they were holding onto each other. It came to him that Eliot wasn't looking grouchy like he was when Alec ate all the olives and didn't add it to them to the grocery list, he was looking grouchy like when he was trying to hide how scared he was that they might not make it out in time. Parker wasn't even trying to hide it.

It occurred to Alec, belatedly, that maybe Nana had been right all those weeks ago.

"No, of course not," he said, denying it with someone that clearly wasn't vehement enough, given the look they were sharing again. "Why would you think that?" he tried again, and cringed because, looking back, he could maybe see why it would look like that. "I mean- the two of you, you're- I just thought maybe you'd appreciate some... space. To be together."

"Without you," Eliot said, his voice flat.

"Ye-es?" Alec tried, except that only made Eliot start shaking his head and Parker started looking more upset.

"Why would we-" she started, her free hand clenched in a fist in her lap. "What did we do wrong?"

"Nothing," Alec immediately said, looking at Eliot to back him up, but Eliot was looking at him with the same question written all over his face. "The two of you just fit together like- like puzzle pieces," he said, remembering his conversation with Nana. "And I just thought that maybe, you know, I wasn't-"

"You thought wrong," Eliot said before Alec could even finish the sentence.

"Puzzles usually have more than two pieces," Parker added, not looking any less upset but starting to look like maybe she understood.

"Just get over here, man," Eliot said, and Parker added, "Nothing's as good without you."

Alec felt his shoulders slump in relief as he pushed himself off the doorframe and went over to be crushed between his girlfriend and his boyfriend in the best hug he'd had in a long time.

"So we're okay?" Parker asked, a little dubiously, when Alec pulled back a little.

"Yeah," he said, feeling foolish as Eliot almost smiled in relief and Parker's entire body relaxed. "Yeah, we're okay."

THE END


End file.
